Merkel says she will seek fourth term as German chancellor

Date of publication: 21 11 2016, 11:03

Angela Merkel announced on Sunday she wants to run for a fourth term as German chancellor in next year’s election, a sign of stability after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.

The 62-year old conservative, facing a voter backlash over her open-door migrant policy, said she had thought long and hard before eventually deciding to stand again in the September election, ending months of speculation over her decision.

“The decision for a fourth term is – after 11 years in office – anything but trivial – for the country, the party and, I say it consciously in this order, for me personally,” she told reporters, striking a serious, almost somber, tone.

“It is a decision not just for an election campaign but about the next four years … if health allows it,” she added after a meeting of senior members of her conservative Christian Democrat (CDU) party.

An Emnid poll on Sunday showed that some 55 percent of Germans want Merkel, Germany’s eighth chancellor since World War Two, to serve a fourth term, with 39 percent against, indicating that despite setbacks, she is still an electoral asset.